Slide rule for wall patterns and areas



July 6, 1943. F. w. LANG SLIDE RULE FOR WALL PATTERNS AND AREAS Filed May 26, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l I?? fefe or Wrede/ta? Wa/Zy' y @www W te @y July 6, 1943. F, w. LANG SLIDE RULE FORv WALL PATTERNS AND AREAS Filed May 26, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IG'SQUARE TJLE LAID DIAGONALLY |2"sauARE T|LE LAID DIAGONALLY Patented July 6, 1943 SLIDE RULE FOR 'WALL PATTERNS AND AREAS Frederick W. Lang, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Wood Conversion Company, Cloquet, Minn., a corporation of Delaware Application May 26, 1941, Serial No. 395,132

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to a mechanical device in the nature of a slide rule, and more particularly to one relating to the application of a specific pattern, or to the selection oi one oi several patterns, of one or more panel units for walls, oors or ceilings.

Wall board, floor tile and ceiling panels or tile, are provided in various units, such as squares and other rectangles, which have dimensions permitting them to be iitted together in repeating pattern units to cover the area of a wall, floor or ceiling. Hereinafter, any such area is termed a wall Where the area to be covered is rectangular, for example, the pattern must be centered to leave spaces for borders, the width of which may be more or less than the length of a pattern unit. The border usually is a necessity in providing complete pattern units. In iiguring material for such a wall, it is of importanceto determine the width of border required, so that stock for it may be included with the stock for the predetermined number of pattern units. Frequently, it is found that less waste will result when selecting one pattern for a given area, than in selecting another. Thus, to ngure on a job to provide the lowest cost, it becomes necessary to determine which of several available pat terns will create the less waste.

It is an object of the present invention te provide a slide rule which may be manipulated to determine readily and quickly the border .required for a dimension of a wall, for a given design.

It is another object of the invention to provide a rule having indications for a plurality of patterns, so that the border necessary for each pattern may be determined to permit selection of a pattern at least in part upon the basis oi waste to provide a border, or upon the basis of more nearly equalizing different borders.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a rule which may be used quickly to determine the accumulated footage oi wallboard material required for the pattern-units for one or all dimensions of a wall area, whereby an estimate on cost may be quickly and easily made.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a rule which may be used quickly to determine the number of tile or pattern-units along a dimension of an area, whereby the total nurnber of such units for a whole area may be easily computed for estimating cost and for ordering the same.

Various other and ancillary objects and ad vantages oi the invention will become apparent from the following description and explanation of the invention, given with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a general View oi the sliderule, partly extended, but not in an operating setting.

Fig. 2 is a view of a longitudinal cross-section of the rule positioned as in Fig. l, on the line 2--2 of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a view of a transverse cross-section of the rule of Fig. l on line 3 3 of Fig. l.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary View of a slide member of the rule of Fig. l showing the end and the beginning of the scale for linear dimension in feet, and with a framed opening therein.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of one face ci the slide member having the patterns which slides within the slide member of Fig. 4 to exhibit the patterns at the said framed opening.

Fig. 6 is a View of the face opposite that in Fig. 5, the bottom edge in Fig. 5 being the top edge in Fig. 6.

In the following description and explanation, and in the claims, the word wall is used to designate a side wall, ceiling, floor or other area, without any intention to limit the term to side walls, or the material to the so-called artificial wallboards. The invention is applicable to designs in natural wood, ber board, veneer-panels, and any other material which may be provided in panels, blocks, tiles, or sections, each alone, or in combinations with others, or with itself, to provide pattern units which may repeat in a large wall area.

The invention, however, is speciiically illustrated by reference to designs which have been in commercial use, and which are provided in a single, as well as in several varieties of a decorative fiber wallboard for side wall and for ceiling use.

The slide rule has a main body part Il! which is graduated arithmetically in units to a. fixed scale to indicate length, such as feet, thus to indicate a length or width of a rectangular area under consideration. For convenience this length scale, indicated at Il, is repeated at sevF eral places as indicated, both on front and on back of the body part Il). The body part lll is shown as a nat member with a frame like form, providing a through opening indicated at l2 and I3 at front and rear faces. The body part Ill is preferably made oi two plies Hl and l5 secured together with spacing means I5 at the edges, so as to leave a space between the plies for a flat member l1 to slide between them for viewing its faces I8 and I9 through the openings I2 and I3 respectively.

For several conveniences, means is provided to act as a line marker for the scales I i, whereby any selected dimension may be physically indicated. This marker functions like the usual runner or cursor with hair-line, found on mathematical slide rules, and such a structure may be provided for the body part Il). However, since in the use of the rule of the present invention, it is not necessary to read on both or either side of the marking line indicating a dimension selected on the scale I I, it is preferred to provide as a line-marker the edge of a case or envelope in which the body part I!! may be housed when not in use. Consequently, as an optional element of the invention an open-ended casing 20 is provided into which the main part is linearly slidable. The edges 2I and 22 of an end opening 23 of the casing are such that they provide line-markers across the scales I I and the faces of the slide I1. When all the scales II on the main part are alined the two edges 2l and 22 of the casing rare superimposed. The casing 20 is preferably made of two plies 24 and 25, with spacing means 2I between or to which the slide member I'I is slidable.

Thus, by pulling the body part Il) out of its casing 20, the visible portion of scales I I will indicate a definite length at the edge of the casing end. With this length set, the inner slide I1 is moved to test one or more patterns against the said indicated length. To provide for this the two faces I8 and I9 of slide I'I bear sequences of various pattern units drawn to the same scale as is used in calibrating scales II. For example, pattern unit A is a square comprised of two rectangular units indicated as 25, and 26, each 16 x 32 inches. Alternate units of the pattern are turned 90. This unit A repeats so that it may be fitted into the indicated dimension on scale II by moving the slide II in body part I 0, until some multiple of the sequence is centered within the marked dimension. The approximate appearance of a border width, with reference to the pattern unit, may thus be seen. By placing the end 28 of A-pattern in coincidence with the zero-end of the scale II, the actual portion of the length required for border is indlcated graphically. It may be indicated also by suitable legend as shown in the A-scale 29, which refers to the A-pattern. The A-scale comprises two series of legends, One series gives the number of pattern units. The other series has legends placed at the division lines between pattern-units or along the units, showing the accumulated length of the pattern of complete units. Where the accumulated length just ts the marked dimension on the scale II, the legend will be the same as said dimension. Where the accumulated length to the end of a unit is less than the marked dimension, the difference represents the total portion of the dimension to be bordered. Half the difference is the actual width of the border. Of course a wider border may be used by using less than the greatest possible number of complete units. The accumulated length legends for the A-pattern apply also to the B-pattern.

Another way to use the rule does not require subtraction of the accumulated length of the chosen multiple of pattern units from the room dimension, in order to derive the portion of the dimension to be tted with border. After centering the selected multiple with respect to the room, the end edge (not the Zero end) of the last unit may be moved to terminate at the set dimension of the room, whereby all the overage for border may be read on the scale II at the line 28 which is the zero-line for the pattern-scale. This figure plus the accumulated length of pattern will equal the room dimension. Figures directly readable are thus available for calculating board-feet or area of pattern, or board feet or area of border. Therefore, it is preferred to have the accumulated length of pattern for an advantage, however the slide member is used in practice.

The slide I'I has several pattern units A, B, C, D, and more may be used, with respect to each of which there is a corresponding A-scale, B- scale, C-scale and D-scale.

Thus, the several patterns may be tried against one or both dimensions of a rectangular wall, easily and quickly to nd a pattern which gives near-equal borders in both directions, or one which gives the minimum of waste in cutting material to provide border, or one which gives the best appearance when bordered. The accumulated footage for both dimensions of a rectangular wall readily permits calculaton of the footage of any pattern for the patterned area, and the border widths readily permit calculation of stock required for bordering.

The case 20 has been referred to as optional. It is to be understood that when dispensed with, any marker, or only a visual record, may be used to mark the dimension on scale I I with reference to which the slide I'I is being set.

It is of course to be understood that the rule may be modied to show but one pattern. or extended to show many more patterns than are illustrated. It may be modied to function only at one face, rather than at both faces as illustrated. These and other modications will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art as falling within the scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A slide rule comprising a main body, and two other parts, one of said other parts providing a line-marking-cursor, and the other part being an elongated slide member relatively slidable with respect to the main body, the main body being marked arithmetically with linear units of length for positioning the line marker to indicate one of the dimensions of a wall, the slide member being marked with one or more sequences of pattern units of wall-forming panel on the same scale-basis as the main body is marked, said slide permitting both the selection of a length of multiple units of the pattern and centering of the selected length with respect to a dimension marked on the linear scale whereby to enable visualization of the effect and proportions of the said dimension as distributed between said units and border depths. said slide also permitting movement for coincidence of one end of the selected multiple length of pattern units with one end of the said set dimension, whereby the portion of the set dimension required for border may be read.

2. A slide rule comprising a main body. and two other parts, one of said other parts providing a line-marking-cursor, and the other part being an elongated slide member relatively slidable with respect to the main body, the main body being marked arithmetically with linear units oi length for positioning the line marker to indicate one of the dimensions of a wall, the slide member being marked with one or more sequences of pattern units of wall-forming panel on the same scale-basis as the main body is marked, the accumulated lengths" of the unitpatterns being marked by indicia on the slide member at the ends of pattern units, said slide permitting both the selectionv of a length of multiple units of the pattern and centering of the selected length with respect to a dimension marked on the linear scale whereby to enable visualization of the eiect and proportions of the said dimension as distributed between said units and border depths, said slide also permitting movement for coincidence of one end oi the selected multiple length of pattern units with one end of the said set dimension, whereby the portion of the set dimension required for border may be read from the scales, and the portion of the dimension required for the pattern units may be read directly from said indicia of accumulated lengths.

FREDERICK W. LANG. 

